So I’m about a week behind in writing this recap up, but I did do it for the DEN blog so I cannot be totally chastised about it. It was about this time last week that I was sitting here in my office with sweat beads coming down my head and back doing the WOW 2.0 show. Cheryl Oakes kept insisting I go and turn my fan on, I just didn’t want to add to any background noise. I survived, I made it through somewhat unscathed, and was honored to get some great direct messages from colleagues on Twitter that I look up to and admire professionally.

I was in the chat room. I had intended to ‘try’ and keep up with it. When I saw how FAST it actually went, that thought went away pretty quickly. So first things first, I’m going to try and answer some of the questions posed in the chat that I don’t think were covered in the show, so here goes:

• 21:01:52 sendkathy Anyone here going to FECT next month? Kathy…I will be at FETC all three days. I will probably be wearing my Discovery Educator Network shirts (yellow and light blue)
• 21:18:58 SSedro in Singapore Oh Tom, all four tech coordinators in my district feel exactly the same way. We all want to be working with kids and teachers, not fixing things and pushing paper. Ok, though not really a question, a comment worth copy/pasting here. The more and more that I try to get in the classrooms with teachers, the more and more I get sucked into tech. support and what I like to call ‘hand holding’. Frustration at this point happens when I try to empower my teachers to solve issues on their own, yet I find myself failing at this task. I think of it this way, how can we expect our students to seek and discover solutions to problems on their own, if we are unwilling to do so on our own. It’s a double edged sword.
• 21:20:44 WOScholar We went wifi campus wide for PK - 5. Expect to have 6-8 done within the next month. THen we will have a cloud over our district campuses. I was paid a visit by a colleague from another school. They are having a new campus built, as theirs dates back to the 1920’s. The design will be exactly similar to my building. I advised him about activating all the ports available in the classrooms as the wireless is very flaky at times, and not to be trusted. It seems that the district has seen the error in their ways and are not even installing but a few wireless access points in the new buildings. It is IDEAL to have the wireless available, but not to run the entire network over it. Reliability and efficiency IMO goes way down.
• 21:22:36 CathyN @tom do the kids have email accts? Not at this time they do not. Our district is rolling out to the schools slowly use of gaggle.net email for our students. At this time High School accounts have been created. We’ve been told that at the elementary level, they did not purchase all the bells and whistles that gaggle.net has. I will be slowly adding this in, as I said in the show, I’m working one at a time with teachers rather than as a whole getting everyone on board.
  
• 21:24:10 sendkathy I like Tom’s approach, core people Again, I try to appeal to the basic nature of meeting people’s intrinsic needs. To newer adapters, what we might call a tool, to them it is still a toy. It’s like walking into a TV production studio for the first time and just hooting and hollering and having a good time. It’s the same concept. Once they get over the ‘newness’ of it, the true test begins of molding the use of technology into their everyday lessons. My district uses a similar approach to completing levels of technology proficiency. For each of the 3 levels completed, there is an incentive attached to it (1 gb flash drive, scanner, laptop or LCD projector). Again, intrinsic needs are being met, and new technology is being exposed.
• 21:26:01 jepcke Wikis are my ‘easy’ website builder of choice I have to say that I agree. With regards to working with the younger children than I’ve been used to, the wiki has been a blessing in disguise. They’ve picked it up quick, and without many errors. (http://mrflynn.pbwiki.com is what we’re doing in 4th Grade class at the moment).
• 21:28:46 WOScholar What does Tom find the easiest thing to integrate with primary teachers? A variety of things have been quite simple at integrating with primary teachers. My school right now is HEAVY into using ‘Thinking Maps’ within the daily context of learning. Inspiration has been great at utilizing the thinking map concepts along with images and audio files. I will be holding a short 30 minute session this Friday for my teachers on integrating Inspiration with Discovery streaming. So should be a greater use of both tools come next week, or at least I hope so.
• 21:30:44 megormi Tom in a perfect world, what tech support do you feel every building should have? I’m not really sure I answered this question the way you were asking it Meg. I’ve heard of some districts that share one tech person between several campuses. When I took my position about this time last year, the previous tech guy was just a ‘tech guy’ with no educational experience. As I said during the show, I try to resolve almost all calls within 2 hours. Some days that does not happen, then I have to prioritize which ticket comes first. The other thing that I think is a MUST, is that schools need to hire people in my position with some sort of educational background that will TRULY understand the needs of the teachers, rather than just ‘talk down on them’ like so many horror stories that are out there.
• 21:35:45 Art Gelwicks OR…tech administration who will listen to the needs of the teaching staff and find ways to help rather than just fix the tech. Art, I would go a step further and say just Administration in general. Administration in my estimation is stuck in the dark ages, and not willing to invest the time and energy. So I have to tend to agree with your assessment.
• 21:36:21 Durff can we exchange this guy for our IT person like yesterday? That’s not the first time I’ve heard this statement. Not really a question, but had to post this comment from the chatlog.
• 21:36:33 lizbdavis Has Tom been reading my blog - I’ve been thinking the same things about teaching teachers to fish. Finding constructivist ways to do PD. Unfortunately I’ve not been reading very many blogs at all. I will have to remember to click the link in Twitter to get your blog added to my RSS. Also, skype me (tom.turner19) would LOVE to chat with you regarding some other ideas.
• 21:36:49 jeffmason @Tom one person for tech support, one person for educational support Jeff, in the ideal world for me this would be the case. The district in which my wife works (one county over) they have their technology integration specialists and Tech Support personnel blocked off into 2 different positions. Really what it amounts to is funding. I’m caught between a rock and a hardplace in my district, where I’m classified as a teacher, so I have to do ‘duties’ that take me away from what my job description is supposed to cover.
• 21:37:43 Art Gelwicks I’ve worked with some educators with good intentions but not a clue about technology. “Teach ‘em to Fish”…the only way their good intentions will turn into positive results.
• 21:40:51 CathyN @tom why do u love edublogs–ive had beefs How much do I love thee edublogs, let me count thy ways??? Actually a great question Cathy. First, edublogs is not blocked by my district, so if I’m in need of checking something, or beginning a post while at school I have that ability. I’ve been pleased with the level of support that I’ve received from James when I’ve had issues. To the point where he’s emailed me directly to help solve the issues. I’m a loyalist at heart, and until I no longer receive a level of service that I cannot be happy with, I stick with it. I don’t change the theme of my blog that often, so the # of themes available is not that big of an issue to me. Also, the plugins that are available all work wonderful for me. However, I cannot argue against when someone has had problems in the past. With anything tech, each person will have a differing opinion, and they will find what works for them and stick with it.
• 21:40:48 Sue Waters (Australia) Agreed blackboard is not bloging I know that, you know that, but my district doesn’t. However, with anything, I have to abide by the rules laid out in front of me. Change will come, albeit too slow for me.
• 21:43:57 jeffmason @Tom I’m from Pensacola FL. Look into the Florida Master Digital Educator program http://etc.usf.edu/mde/ I’ve applied. I’ve sent my application in for the third year in a row now. Here’s hoping the third time is the charm.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and wonder HOW in the world you guys listen and keep up with the chat at the same time. Amazing !! Please feel free to post any questions that didn’t get asked during the show here and I will create a new post answering your questions. Again, I have to send out a HUGE thanks to the 4 Women of Web 2.0 (Cheryl, Vicki, Sharon and Jen: in no particular order of course) I’ve truly enjoyed the experience and hope to do it again sometime.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: WOW2.0 edtech technology education techsupport IT TomTurner